


Underground

by Spuds_123



Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Drugging, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Kidnapping, Kind of? I think?, Manipulation, Manipulative Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Nightmares, Parental Phil Watson (Video Blogging RPF), Sad TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Shapeshifter Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Swearing, TommyInnit-centric (Video Blogging RPF), Traumatized Tommyinnit (Video Blogging RPF), Winged Phil Watson (Video Blogging RPF), ask if any other tags are needed :], but they arent directly related, ghostbur is just straight up vibin, how the fuck do i tag things, i want to punt the dream i have written, kind of? its worth the tag just in case, no first draft we go in with no plan, oh boy chapter 11 is something, someone just get these people some therapy man, technoblade wilbur and tommy think of each other as brothers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:40:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 15,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28112556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spuds_123/pseuds/Spuds_123
Summary: Tommyinnit runs away from Dream's control. Far, far, away. And he stumbles across a house in the snow. (doesn't follow the canon storyline)Updates on days ending in a 4 or 9 :]I will try to update once a week! (If any of the CCs find this and want me to take it down, I will do immediately!)
Relationships: No Romantic Relationship(s), Ranboo & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Technoblade & Phil Watson (Video Blogging RPF), Technoblade & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), TommyInnit & Phil Watson (Video Blogging RPF), Wilbur Soot & Technoblade & TommyInnit & Phil Watson, Wilbur Soot & TommyInnit
Comments: 21
Kudos: 540





	1. Running Away

Tommy ran through the harsh environment of the snowy biome, a mixture of anger, sadness, and fear fuelling his energy. He may've been free from Dream at last, but he had just watched his newest home get blown up in front of him. He was carrying everything that he had: carrots, wheat, various blocks, diamond tools, a jukebox, the prime log and prime bell, but most importantly, his pictures of Tubbo. As his legs started to give way, he noticed a house in the far distance of his vision. This was enough to motivate Tommy to keep going. His beaten netherite armour dragged him down, but just as it felt like he was going to collapse, he got to the doorway. He recognised the house by now - Techno's house.. But... what would Dream think of this? Actually fuck it. Fuck what Dream thinks. He wasn't actually going to go in, just steal a torch from the outside, but he ended up going in to avoid the Stray that was currently shooting at him. 

"HELLO?" Tommy called as he shut the door behind him. He was surrounded by zombie villagers in boats, all of which were staring at him. He decided to look around, it wouldn't do any harm, right? That's what he thought before he started to open the chests. As he peered in, he realised that Techno was **rich**. Tommy stole a strength potion and downed it in one, and carried on looting the chests. Once he took everything he wanted, he headed upstairs, and looked in the chests upstairs. By the time he was done, he had gained a diamond sword, ender pearls, over a stack of golden apples, a crossbow, a splash potion of harming, a stack of blaze rods, and even more. For a second he thought he was free, that being exiled wasn't so bad, but as he stepped out onto the balcony he remembered he wasn't allowed to see his friends. Exile was hell. He went back down to the room he entered when he came in, and dug a small hole. With a small scream and a swear under his breath, Tommy actually fell through the floor. Tommy tried again, and after not falling this time, he dug a pit into the ground. Suddenly, he had a thought. Just ask. Wait, was he going insane? Tommy **hated** Techno. He, Tommyinnit, hated Technoblade. He couldn't just ask! He'd get killed on sight! For now he's just going to hide out under his base and steal his stuff. He's rich, he's not going to miss any of it anyway. As Tommy dug out a hole underground, his mood did improve. Maybe he could get away with this. 

It had been about an hour after Tommy had stumbled into Techno's house. Tommy had now mined his place out fully, and had gotten comfortable. He had placed his jukebox next to his bed and had Chirp on. Despite the fact that it was given to him by none other than BadBoyHalo, he had grown quite attached to the red disc. Maybe it's because it's the first disc that he's owned in a while. He closed his eyes and started to drift to sleep. For the first time in weeks, Tommy was warm. He was safe. 

* * *

"Tommy." He heard a voice as he woke up, still tired. After all, it had only been a couple hours.

"Tommy." there the voice was again. "Where are you?" 

Then it clicked who's voice it was in Tommy's head. 

"D-Dream? Where are you?" He realised he couldn't see anything. He didn't know where he was. It's so cold.

"Here silly, I'm in front of you! Oh, you can't see because of the mask, right?"

"...Mask?"

"You know, the one I gave you at the beach party a couple months ago?" Tommy went to say something, but decided against it. "Anyway, Tommy, you know the time! I've already dug you the pit this time!" Tommy sat up in his bed, and felt around. He was back in the tent. Tnret was... no longer blown up? He felt his way over to the tent opening, then he felt something grab his hand. "This way!" As he walked along, he got more and more confused. "And here we are! Now drop all your items, Tommy." He rummaged through his pockets and threw everything into the pit, one by one. He stopped, but Dream was still waiting. "Uh-uh, you're missing something! I'll give you a hint, you're wearing it." Oh, right. He hurried his iron armour off then immediately threw it in the pit. "There we go! That wasn't too bad, was it?" Dream placed the TNT, loaded his crossbow, and fired at the TNT.

* * *

Tommy woke with a start. He didn't remember his dream but it was enough to scare him badly. His breath was all sped up and he was shaking. He tried to calm himself down, but he couldn't think of anything. He decided to quickly go through his ender chest and grab the first disc he got and put it on, on the lowest volume as not to wake anyone up. The disc he got hold of was Far, a gift from Lazar. He missed him. Although Lazar was a dickhead, he was still nice sometimes. For example, when he gave Tommy the disc. Tommy was actually incredibly happy when he did that for him. Not that he'd admit it, of course. He still had a persona to keep up, after all. Tommyinnit, the big man who, under no circumstances, would accept a pity gift. He couldn't just... say thank you for it. His breathing had slowed, and he decided to check the time. 3:32AM. He sighed, then got back into his bed, and curled in on himself. It was going to be a rough few weeks.

***

Tommy rolled over and checked the time again. This time the clock read 10:58AM. A slightly more reasonable time to be awake, he thought. As he took Far out of the jukebox, he started hearing movement above him. Oh yeah, he was living underneath a mass murderer who if he found him, would not hesitate to shoot him right through the heart. Tommy tried to be quiet, but every creak of every chest made him tense up. He couldn't risk being found, not at the moment. He wasn't wearing any armour, and Techno was always in full netherite, and always carried a minimum of two weapons on him at all times. That would not be the best way to lose his last life. With no warning, he heard Technoblade's "HEH?!" just as he remembered something. He disorganized Techno's chests. He held his breath and tensed up even more, as he scrambled to grab his armour and a weapon. He heard Techno talking to himself, saying Philza must've been here recently. He let out the breath he had been holding for a minute, then relaxed his muscles. 

***

Techno rummaged through his chests. Why did Phil never put his stuff back in the right place? This has happened like... five or six times now! He made a mental note to talk to Phil about it later. As he closed another chest, he swore he could hear someone, or something, below him. It was probably nothing, but he could hear the voices saying to go check it out. He grumbled something to himself, then made his way down the ladder. Not to his surprise, there was nobody there, other than the villagers he kept down there. The voices said to go down further. So he did. If he listened to them this one time, maybe they'd stop chanting "blood for the blood god" every time he interacted with another living thing. He went down to the bottom of the ladder, and looked around. He said to himself, "See chat? There's nothing here." But then a few voices stood out in particular, saying to go down further. He sighed and dug down another block, and was met with a ladder.

"Huh," he thought, "sometimes the voices do know what they're on about."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When writing the bits mentioning discs, I was just listening to that disc on repeat :]


	2. Getting Found

Shit. Tommy heard the block breaking. He knew that Technoblade was going to come and kill him. He grabbed his sword, some potions, and made sure his armour wouldn't break in one hit, and he backed up into a corner. Then he braced himself for the blood god's wrath.

***

He slowly climbed down the ladder, being wary of where he was stepping. Why was this just under his base? How long had it been there? He dropped down all the way, quickly looked around, then advanced into the "room." If you could call it that. All it had in it was a bed, some chests, and then a log and a bell in a corner. And in another corner, he saw none other than his little brother, snarling and holding a splash potion of what looks to be harming.

"D-Don't come any closer, bitch! I got a potion!" Tommy snarled at the pig. He was shaking slightly, and had a half eaten golden apple in his other hand.

"Are those MY golden apples?!" Techno asked, maybe a bit too aggressively. Tommy shrunk back a bit, but tried to hide it. 

"So what if they are?" With no warning he threw the potion. Unknown to Tommy, Techno had incredibly fast reaction times, and deflected the potion back towards him with his shield. Tommy flinched, switched his offhand to his almost-broken shield, and cowered behind it. Technoblade approached Tommy. He peered through one out of many small holes in his shield, and watched as Techno raised his axe above him. One swing and the shield broke, shattering into hundreds of pieces right in front of them both. Techno reached forwards towards Tommy, and grabbed him by the hair, and pulled him upright. His chest rose and fell quicker than before.

"Oi, you prick! Let me go!" He struggled under Techno's grip, but to no avail. Techno agreed to let go, but only if Tommy would give him his stuff back. He followed him upstairs, and they sat in the top floor. Before Techno even prompted him, Tommy gave him the stack of apples, his ender pearls, his sword, his crossbow, and his blaze rods, but before Techno could tell him to get out, he started giving him his tools, and various other items that Tommy had clearly gotten himself. He took off his armour too, and put it all in front of Techno, and placed a block of TNT. He then pulled out a few small pieces of paper that had burn marks around the edges.

"Can I at least keep my pictures.?" Tommy asked. Technoblade gave him a weird look, and pushed all his own stuff back towards him. 

"I don't want all your trash. All I wanted was my own stuff, Tommy, not all your stuff. Unlike someone in this room, I'm not interested in _stealing other people's shit,_ Tommy." Tommy recoiled at the last bit of the sentence.

"'m sorry. I'll... leave. See you never, dickhead." Techno looked closer at Tommy. He noticed the rips in his clothes, how thin he was, like he hadn't eaten properly in days. He noticed the dark circles under his eyes, and finally, he noticed the burn marks all over his body. Even if he didn't react like this to things to burns, he had been around Phil long enough to know that the severity of those burn marks had been from more than one time. Many, _many_ more times. Suddenly, a sense of worry had settled itself in his chest. 

"...You could've just asked, Tommy. Even if you hate me, we are... brothers, after all."

Tommy sat in silence. He didn't know if he could trust him. His head was all fuzzy. He had thought he could trust Dream, but look where that got him. It got him standing on the edge of a one block tower, contemplating if he should take his last life himself. Tommy hadn't noticed, but there were silent tears running down his cheeks. Techno stood up and walked towards him, then sat down closer to Tommy and placed an arm around him. He flinched, but then leaned towards him slightly. He was going to say something, but the lack of sleep combined with the drop of action from earlier, Tommy just fell asleep. Techno smiled to himself, then carried Tommy downstairs to his bed. He'll ask about that later. For now his little brother needed to sleep.

***

"...Techno..?" Tommy stirred. How long had he been asleep? Last he remembered, he was sat with Techno, giving him his items. Where were his- Techno's items now? He'll ask later. Wait, how was he in his bed? Was he allowed to stay here? He checked the time, he had been asleep for what, nine hours? That's one of the best night's sleep he's had in... months. He got out of his bed and put on a music disc. Wait. It's his favourite disc. He leaves it on as he heads upstairs, still being able to hear it a bit from two stories up. 

"Technoblade? Where are you?" He called out to the seemingly empty house. Where was he? Tommy shrugged. He stole a few stacks of cobblestone, and went outside. He wanted to build a tower, like he usually does wherever he goes. He planned out the squarish shape on the ground, then one block towered up to however tall he deemed good. Normally the tower building activity was fun for Tommy, but today something felt off. Something about the towering was too similar to what he had done just a couple of days ago. Suddenly Tommy realised he was stuck. He didn't want to jump down. He built a small 3x3 platform and sat up there, waiting for Techno to return. He can wait.

***

"Tommy?" Techno returned from his trip. He walked through the front door, and climbed down the ladders to get to Tommy's abomination of a room. Tommy was not there, as unknown to Technoblade, Tommy was stuck at the top of a one block cobblestone tower. He took the Wait disc out of the jukebox and set it down carefully in one of the chests. "Tommy, I got your stuff. I'll give it to you once I find you." He called out. He checked all the floors, but Tommy was not in the house. Techno looked outside one of his windows, and saw the cobblestone tower. He grumbled about the lack of blending in, then went outside to go and look at it. Once he was at the base of the tower, he could very faintly see the top of the blond's head peaking over the edge. "Tommy?" 

"Techno? Is that you?" Tommy rolled himself over and peered down at him. "It is! Uh... I need some help getting down. Can you... uh..." He trailed off. He didn't want him to place water to jump down, but he didn't to make him tower up to him either. He should've brought a pickaxe with him.

"I'll place water. Jump down whenever." Just as he turned around, Tommy called out. 

"Wait! Techno, can you... um..." He didn't want Techno to laugh at him. "Can you... tower up here?" He thought he would laugh at him, but he just went with it. He thought it was weird, sure, but he towered up and gave Tommy his pick so he could get down, then he just jumped into the previously placed water. He picked up his water then made his way over to Tommy, who had gone inside and hid underground, with Far playing quietly. 

"Tommy, what was... that about?" Techno asked, concern seeping into his voice. He feared the worst, but there's no way Tommy would even _dream_ about doing something like that, right?

...right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yes i know shields don't block potions but its for plot


	3. Interesting Conversations

Tommy and Techno sat in the same place they sat when Tommy gave him all his stuff. "Oh yeah, here's all your stuff. You never took it back." Tommy reached towards it hesitantly. 

"Are you sure I can have it?"

"I don't see why not. It's _your_ stuff, is it not?" Tommy grabbed his armour and started putting it on. He glanced up warily, unsure if this was a trap. He got all of it on, then slowly took the other things back too. He kept his axe out, though. 

"I'll ask again. What was that all about?"

"...what do you mean?"

"The giving me all your stuff, the not jumping down from the tower, the crying last night?" Tommy swore under his breath. He wasn't ready to talk about it. He started breathing faster, and looking around with fear in his eyes. Suddenly he wasn't sitting at Technoblade's house anymore. He was standing in front of a pit, in front of Dream. 

"Items in the pit, Tommy." He obediently dropped everything in, excluding his photos of Tubbo. "I said, everything." Tommy stood there silently, not knowing what to do. He wasn't going to give up his pictures. But you should always listen to friends, right? He had taken too long in deciding what to do. Dream had silently walked around the pit, to where he was now standing behind Tommy. "In. The. Pit." Tommy felt a hand on his back, sending shivers down his spine. Then he was pushed into the pit. He fell onto his hands and knees, then turned around to face dream. He could see his mouth underneath the mask, and he was smiling. Not a friendly smile, but a malicious one. He placed the TNT above him, and just before he lit it, he morphed into Technoblade.

He looked down at Tommy, then said one thing. "It stays in the pit." Then the TNT fell onto him.

* * *

Tommy woke up in a panic. "Hello? Where am I?"

"You're at my house, Tommy." Techno was sat across the room from him, but noticeably closer now. "You starting panicking then you passed out." Tommy looked towards him and tried to see Technoblade, but all he could see was Dream, lighting the TNT above him. He shuffled back, and put his back against the wall.

"D-Don't come closer. I don't wanna talk about it." He shuffled back further, now with his legs curled tightly into his chest.

"That's fine. You can talk about it when you're ready. For now, I need to go find some dogs. Do you wanna come with?"

"...maybe. My head's all spinny and shit. Ask me later." With that, he swung his legs over to the ladder, and climbed all the way down, to his room in Technoblade's basement.

***

Half an hour later, Tommy went back up his ladder to find Technoblade. He was on the second floor, idly chatting with his enderman while rummaging through chests, sorting them. 

"The fuck?" Techno spun his head around, making eye contact with the teen. "You can talk... to endermen?" 

"Yeah. Ranboo saw that Edward - that's the enderman's name - was just living in here and offered to teach me. I accepted. I know the basics now, but most of the time I still need to ask Ranboo to translate for me. Anyway. Why'd you come upstairs?" 

"Uh. I'll come and get dogs with you, or whatever. Unless you've already gone to get them, in that case-"

"No, I haven't gone yet. Go grab your armour and whatever else you need. We'll leave in five minutes." With that, he turned back to his chests, and talking to Edward.

***

They had just left Techno's house, and they headed left. As they walked along, Techno didn't seem to notice Tommy's disquietude, or really notice Tommy at all. He was all caught up in getting dogs, to breed a dog army for the two of them. He strode along, with Tommy falling behind as he started to recognise the surrounding areas. Tommy's anxiousness clearly got more noticeable, as Techno turned around to him, and asked if he was ok.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a bit... cold is all." Tommy replied to the pig standing in front of him. "Let's carry on." 

"Sure. Do we even know what biomes they spawn in? Let me search it, wait here." Unfortunately, Tommy did not hear that last bit, and kept walking, eventually losing track of Technoblade. 

"Ok, looks like we need to- Tommy?"

***

"...Technoblade?" He stumbled through the forest, knowing exactly what was on the other side of the trees. He didn't want to go back. But he had to find these dogs, right? He had seen some dogs around here before. He thought he had, anyway. He didn't actually know if he had or not. He might've been seeing things. Wouldn't have been the first time, anyway. "Hello? Anyone? Dream? Oh god, where's Dream..." as much as he didn't like him, Dream was still his friend! He cared about him! Dream gave him armour that one time, and sometimes he didn't even blow his things up!

***

"Tommy? Tommy, where are you?" Techno called out as he walked through the nearest forest. Can't leave his brothers alone for five seconds without something happening. Tommy wandered off, and he doesn't even need to say what happened to Wilbur. He found the edge of the forest, and decided to check it out. He found... he didn't know how to describe it. Someone had clearly been here, but there were no signs as to who. Mainly because whatever had been there had been blown into many, many pieces. "What the..." He muttered to himself as he dug through the scraps of what could've been a tent. There was nothing of importance to be seen, only a pit and a few remains of cloth and wood. He walked further along, and saw... something? He didn't have time to look any further at the moment, as he then heard Tommy. He was far away, but he was ok. That was enough for him.

***

"Where is he..." Tommy had now sat down with his back against a tree, curled in on himself. Dream would know what to do right now. His head was down on top of his knees, to hide the tears forming in his eyes. He thought he was ready to face Logstedshire again, but obviously not. Why couldn't he go back yet? It had been over a full fucking day, how was he not ready to face this yet??

"Tommy?" Techno appeared from behind a tree, and approached Tommy. He shrunk away from him.

"W-What?" His voice shook as he spoke, matching the rest of his body. 

"Tommy, look at me." He gave him a few seconds, but nothing happened. "Ok, fine. Breathe in for four seconds," he did as he was told, "hold for seven, now out for eight." Techno repeated this a couple of times, Tommy calming down as he did so. "Tommy. We can find dogs elsewhere if you want. Do you want to stay here, go back, or keep going with me to find dogs?"

"I'll... keep going with you.

"...thanks, Techno."

And although Techno could not see his face, he could tell that he was smiling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> last chapter before the end of the year :) happy new years everyone!!


	4. Small Progress

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the late upload! creative block can be a real bitch sometimes :(

"Techno?" 

"What."

"Where are we?"

"Tommy, the answer is going to be exactly the same as it was five seconds ago. And ten seconds ago. And fifteen seconds ago. And so on. You don't need to ask every time we move a block." As much as Techno liked his brother, he was starting to get on his nerves. It had been about an hour and a half since he found him in the forest, and he had cheered up considerably. Only problem with Tommy is - and he certainly doesn't mean it, but - the happier he is, the more annoying he is. Techno didn't mind too badly, this time. Anything was an improvement from before. Although the teen looked fine now, Techno was... worried, to say the least. What exactly happened during his exile? He was snapped out of his thoughts by Tommy, talking to someone. 

"Tommy, who are you ta- oh, Ghostbur. Wait, Ghostbur?" He took another look at the ghost. He looked fine at first glance, but now that he inspected him further, he could see that parts of him were... what could only be described as melting. 

"Hi Techno! It rained earlier. Rain makes me melt." He spoke almost too happily, considering his own form was dripping off of his fingertips. 

"Ok, Tommy," the young teen looked at him. "I'm gonna need you to take Ghostbur back to the house." He pointed off into the distance. "That way, go straight, you can't miss it. Make sure to get Ghostbur inside, and set up a campfire downstairs, in the room above yours. Go quickly." Tommy started running, Ghostbur following closely behind. Technoblade carried on heading in the direction he was previously walking, determined to get some dogs.

***

"Ghostbur, where have you been? You left me all alone, stuck with... Dream."

"You know when I was handing out the invitations? Before I even got the first one out, Dream told me he'd take care of them! He told me to go wait in the forest for him to come back, so we could head back to you together! But then I wondered off, and got lost. Then you found me, just now! Isn't that strange?" Ghostbur paused in his storytelling to look at Tommy, who looked like he had... well, seen a ghost. "Here, have some blue, Tommy. Calm yourself, please." He looked at Ghostbur's grey hands, which were slightly stained blue. He took the clear crystal, and watched as it turned into a beautiful deep blue, almost immediately. Ghostbur's gaze turned from his usual to a slightly sadder look, why did his brother have so much blue inside of him? He silently handed him more crystals, them turning blue as soon as they transferred into his hands. Ghostbur took some blue for himself too, it turning blue at a slightly slower speed than Tommy's. He tossed it aside, and went back to floating beside Tommy. His form dripped more and more off of his fingers, but he seemed not to notice. Suddenly, he was hit in the head with a coat. His old coat. _Alivebur's_ coat.

"Put that on. You need to stay warm, right?" 

"...Tommy, you need to stay warm too."

"Ghostbur, the difference between you and me, is that I don't fucking melt in the cold. Now put it on, there's gloves in one of the pockets." He slipped the coat on, and _oh god it still fits perfectly_. He looked at how different it is to how he remembered. There was a new patch on it, just below the L'manberg flag. _A patch of Dream's face_. There was bloodstains around the front and back of the coat. Coincidentally, the bloodstains around the back surrounded a large hole. A sword-blade shaped hole. He shook his head of all thoughts about the coat, and dug through the pockets to find the gloves. Why did Alivebur get a coat with this many pockets, nobody needs this many pockets. He found multiple sweet wrappers, a small bag full of rocks, some blue crystals (some much more blue than others), and the last thing he pulled out before he got to the gloves was multiple pictures of Tommy, standing with... Ghostbur didn't recognise the other boy in the pictures. Why did being a Ghost come with so many downsides? He could never remember... anything. Maybe Alivebur had a bad memory too. It's not like he'd ever know, anyway. The pictures were snatched from his hands before he could think about it any more.

"Those aren't gloves, Wil- Ghostbur." Tommy pointed at the right pocket, then carried on walking. Ghostbur pulled the black fingerless gloves out of the pocket, then hurried to catch up to Tommy.

***

Tommy sighed as he walked through the front door, Ghostbur rushing through the door and immediately rummaging through chests, to find things for a campfire. In no less than a minute, Ghostbur had settled himself in front of the campfire, just outside of Technoblade's house. Tommy's coat and gloves had since been taken off, and were now sitting next to him. He was no longer melting, and looked content as he sat there. He beckoned Tommy over, and they sat together in front of the fire in silence for what seemed like ages. Tommy was the one to break the silence.

"So... how long do you think you were in the forest?"

"I'm not really sure. I think it was between... three days to two weeks? I'm not sure. I lost track of time pretty quickly. I guess that's what happens when you're stuck in a forest, with little to no change between each day. But! I'm here now! That's the important thing, right?"

"...yeah. I'm glad you're here now, Ghostbur." He'd actually been gone for almost three weeks. It was getting late, and Technoblade still wasn't back. From what Alivebur and Phil had told him, it wasn't unlike him to be gone for days at a time when he's really focused. Tommy wasn't surprised that he wasn't back yet. He was struggling to stay awake, and before he was aware of it, his head was resting on Ghostbur's shoulder. He fell asleep right there.

***

Technoblade walked up to his front door, and saw his brothers sat in the pitch darkness, other than the slightly dying fireplace.

"You ready to come inside now? I can... carry Tommy if you need me to."

"Ok! Don't forget to put out the fire, it's dangerous to leave fire unsupervised." Techno lifted Tommy up, almost effortlessly. You would've thought Tommy was heavier for a 6'1 teen, but his skinniness made him lighter than the average tall person. He carried him down the ladders to his underground hole, and put him on his bed. He couldn't help but notice how... bad he looked. The heavy dark circles under his eyes, His torn up clothes, his mismatched shoes, his dirty skin. The weeks in exile really did a number on him, didn't they? He'll get better with time, Techno thought to himself as he climbed back up the ladder, tomorrow is another day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> while writing this hayloft came on and i literally took a break just to vibe, also "My daddy got a gun" -Philza Minecraft, 2020


	5. Dog Hunting

Techno watched as his brothers walked away, towards his house. Although, he guessed it was _their_ house now. Tommy didn't exactly have anywhere else to go, and Ghostbur was likely to stick around with them both anyway. He had been walking for ages with Tommy, and they had no luck finding dogs. Hopefully he'll find at least two dogs in the time he has alone now, judging from where the sun is, he'll only have around... three or four hours if he wanted to get back before dark. He waited until they were out of his sight, then carried on walking. He'd have to find these dogs quickly if he wanted to get everything he had planned done. 

***

Three dogs. He had gotten only three dogs in... five hours?! He thought it had been way less time. He looked at his dogs, all with the same red collar. He could barely tell the difference between them, so Technoblade grabbed a couple of nearby flowers, one blue and one yellow, and dyed the collars. Now he could actually tell the difference between each of the dogs. He started to head home. There was no time to go back to the abandoned place, even though he really wanted to. He needed to get back to Tommy and Ghostbur, there's no way he was going to leave those two alone. They would tear his place apart, either an accident or not. Both were equally likely.

*** (events of the end of the previous chapter) ***

He climbed up the ladder from Tommy's room, and went back to the main room, to look for Ghostbur. "Ghostbur? Where did you go?" He found Ghostbur on the top floor, lying down staring straight up at the ceiling with a sad expression. He was holding one of his crystals, the colour being a royal blue. He didn't seem to notice Technoblade appear in the room. "Ghostbur? You ok?" He jumped at the sudden interruption of the previous silence, then immediately changed his expression to a slightly happier one. 

"Oh, Technoblade! I didn't expect to see you here! What is it?" 

"Oh, I just wanted to talk to you."

"About what?"

"Ghostbur, you were with Tommy for his exile, right?"

"Yeah, I was! Well, I was there for most of it, but for the last couple of weeks I was in the forest. He was in exile for... I think it was about three months? Maybe? I don't really know. Oh, I got off topic. Anyway, yeah I was with him for a lot of it, why do you ask?"

"Dream visited almost every day, right?"

"Right."

"How did he... treat both you and Tommy?"

"I don't remember any of Dream's interactions with Tommy, but he was nice enough to me! I think? You're going to have to ask Tommy about all of this. Sorry I couldn't be much help."

"It's fine, Ghostbur. No need to worry about it. I'll try and ask him in the morning. I'm probably going to sleep now. Do ghosts... need sleep?

"I'm not sure. I don't think I _need_ sleep, but I sleep anyway because I get bored otherwise. Anyway, goodnight Technoblade!"

"Night, Ghostbur." Techno left Ghostbur on his own on the top floor, and went down the ladder. He was not looking forward to talking to Tommy about all this, not if he would react the same way as he did previously. Eventually, they all fell asleep.

* * *

"Tommy! There you are!" The yelling voice was recognisable instantly, as his friend, Dream. Friend? Enemy? Friend? Friend. Tommy hesitantly settled on friend. 

"Dream!! Dream, where are you? I can hear you!" Tommy turned around, which didn't really do anything, considering that he still couldn't see through the mask. 

"Tommy, I'm over here! Follow my voice!" He was somewhere over to his left, so Tommy went off of that and walked to his left. "Yeah that's it!" Dream yelled to him. The words of encouragement coming from Dream felt... nice, in all honestly. After all, he was still the only one who was there the entire time. Even Ghostbur wasn't there at the end, even if it wasn't his fault. He stumbled forward, hands out in front of him to make sure he didn't walk into anything. That didn't matter though, as he tripped and fell down. He stood up and tried to keep walking, but his hand hit a wall. He still hadn't found Dream, despite the fact that his voice could still be heard in front of him. Then he realised. Dream's voice was also above him. He felt around him to confirm his suspicions, and he was right. He had fallen into a pit. Dream started talking, his voice getting louder and louder as he walked towards the pit.

"Tommy. I said I would be your friend! Why did you run away from me..?" God, the pain in his voice hurt to listen to. Tommy almost let out a scream when he heard Dream go from in front of him to immediately behind him. His mask was removed by Dream himself, and all of a sudden Tommy felt... weird. He hated the mask, but somehow without it was worse. He turned around and tried to reach for the mask, but instead bumped into something. He backed up and looked at what he headbutted. It turned out to be Dream, standing directly in front of him now. He was in his usual form, a vaguely human shape, but covered in a hoodie, gloves, sweats, and a mask, which made it hard to tell if he really was in a human form. He was around a foot away from Tommy, with one arm up in the air, holding a red mask with white face on it. The face looked exactly how it did on Dream's mask, but it was sad, instead of happy. Quite fitting, really. He tried to reach up to grab his mask, but Dream pushed him away with his free arm. He tossed the mask up, and it fell somewhere outside the pit. Tommy now had no chance of getting hold of it. He realised that he hadn't actually looked at his surroundings since Dream taking his mask, so he took a second to look around. He was in a pit, obviously, dug out in dirt. It was too tall for him to be able to get out, at least double the height of him. It was quite wide though, he could stand in the middle and stretch out both arms, and he wouldn't touch either side. He looked back at Dream, who was still standing opposite him, but now he had crossed his arms and was tapping his foot impatiently. 

"Tommy. I _said_ I would be your _friend._ Why would you ever run away from your friends?" The pain had slipped away, and was replaced with what could only be described as pure anger.

"D-Dream, I-" He paused. He didn't want to say it to his face, but Dream was the reason he had run away in the first place! But he had a point. You don't run away from your friends. 

"Shut it. I don't want to hear your pathetic excuses. You really are a bad friend, no wonder Tubbo decided to exile you." That's it. Tommy was pissed now. He ran towards Dream and swung a punch towards him, which he dodged swiftly and proceeded to catch Tommy's arm in his hand. 

"Doesn't this all seem familiar to you?" With that, he morphed into Technoblade, and threw a punch at Tommy with his free hand. They had a bloody fight, blood coming from one much more than the other. It ended with Tommy on the ground, and _~~Techno-~~_ Dream standing above him. He lined his axe up with his neck, and raised it above his head. Tommy squeezed his eyes shut, not having the energy to move anymore. He swung the axe down.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just in case it isn't clear by now, when I use the line in this fic it means it is a dream or flashback :) just to clarify!!!


	6. Waking Up

"Tommy? Tommy! Tommy, wake up! Tommy?" Techno called his name over and over, trying to wake the sleeping boy without getting too close. Though, he may need to soon, as he's been calling his name for five minutes and Tommy was still thrashing around in his sleep. He sighed, and walked towards Tommy. He tried to grab his wrists to avoid getting hit, but this didn't happen before, of course, getting hit in the face a few times. "Tommy!" He woke up and frantically looked around, before locking eyes with Techno. That didn't actually help, of course, and when he noticed that he was holding his wrists he lost it. 

"Let go of me!! You aren't real!! Piss off!!" Tommy yelled at the top of his lungs, repeating the same things, over and over. Techno pulled Tommy towards him and wrapped his arms around him, trying to get him to relax. At first nothing happened, and he kept trying to break away from Techno, but after a few seconds, when he was out of energy, he relaxed in his arms. Ghostbur came down the ladder, with a worried look on his face.

"I heard yelling... is everyone ok?" His voice was calm, yet at the same time full of panic. He was tense, but relaxed once he took in the site in front of him. Tommy had almost fallen asleep again, with Techno's arms wrapping around him. Tommy looked comfortable, while Techno, on the other hand, looked like he would rather be anywhere else. But he didn't move, as his little brother was no longer screaming in his sleep. It wasn't just the screaming that was scary for both of them, though. He had been saying things as well. He'd been yelling about... Dream, and fighting. He hadn't told Techno about everything that had happened yet, and Ghostbur just couldn't remember enough. Tommy would have to tell them soon, though, as the events from the last few days were getting increasingly worrying. He couldn't sleep for more than four hours without getting scared awake, by something that apparently had to do with Dream. No matter how badly he wanted to know, Technoblade knew that five in the morning was not a good time to ask. He attempted to detach Tommy from his clothes, but he wouldn't let go of his red cloak, so he just took it off and left it with Tommy. He'd ask for it back in the morning.

***

Tommy opened his eyes slowly, and first thing he did was check the time. Eight in the morning. No wonder he felt like hell. He didn't feel like going back to sleep though, so instead he swung his legs out of bed and sat there for a bit. He wanted to tidy up the hole he was living in, and wanted to put music on in the background while doing it. Which disc... he decided that Blocks was the best one to play. He pulled it out of his ender chest and put it in the jukebox, and just sat and listened for a minute. Then he remembered he said he wanted to tidy, so he started making his bed. He was on auto pilot for a bit, but was snapped out of it quickly when he realised there was a red cloak in his bed. This was Technoblade's cloak, it was recognisable instantly. Wait, did he steal Techno's cloak?? He'll have to return that one when he's done tidying, otherwise Technoblade will actually just murder him. Actually, it would probably be easier to just return it now, in case of forgetting to do so later. He neatly folded up the cloak, then started to creep up his ladder. He didn't want to give it back to him directly, rather just put it with the other cloaks that he owns. It was quite early, so Tommy was holding on to the hope that Techno was still asleep, so he wouldn't even notice it had gone. He was honestly still confused on how he ended up with it, he was pretty sure it hadn't been there before. He walked along the stone floor, then up the next ladder, trying his hardest to be as quiet as humanly possible. He had made it to where he keeps all his cloaks, and just as Tommy thought he had gotten away with it, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He screamed, then spun around and punched the owner of said hand. Then he realised he just punched Technoblade, and so he tried to run around him and run away, but Techno kept a firm hand on his shoulder, hindering any attempt to run off. Tommy's eyes widened, but his breathing seemed to be fine, so Techno held him there and started talking.

"Tommy. May I ask what you're doing in my closet?" Techno obviously knew, but he wanted to see what Tommy would say.

"Uh, Technoblade! Um, your closet..." he trailed off, trying to think of an excuse, but failing miserably. Techno took his hand off of his shoulder and smiled at him, a rare occurrence.

"Tommy, it's fine. I know why you're here. Hand it over, I'll wash it. Actually, I'll probably get Phil to wash it..." He was suddenly lost in thought, wondering if he should wash it or ask Phil to do it for him. It's not like Phil _wouldn't_ do it, but every time he visits his house, he does all the chores, and it wasn't really fair on him. His train of thought was broken by Tommy's voice.

"You... wouldn't happen to know why I have it in the first place, would you?" Ah. That would explain a couple of things. He didn't remember last night.

"Uh..." should he tell him? "...yes, I know why you have it. Are you sure you want me to tell you?"

"Yeah." Technoblade told him everything that happened last night, the night terrors, the screams of Dream's name, the falling asleep in Techno's arms, the yelling about him not being real. "One thing that I don't really get is the whole bit about Dream. You don't have to tell me, but just know that you can, alright?" His face softened, and he took the cloth from his hands. "You can go now, unless you have anything to say?"

"...no, I got nothing." He moved around him, then as he got to the ladder, he muttered a thank you then climbed back down to his room. When he woke up he had wanted to tidy his room, but now he wanted to do nothing except lie in his bed and stare at the ceiling. Some questions were better left unanswered, as they could lead to more and more questions. Tommy had millions of questions, but they fell short. He wasn't going to bombard Techno with questions.

Even if he wanted to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know yet, but next chapter may be late!! I got ill and couldn't really work on the fic, so next chapter isn't done yet :)


	7. Visiting Friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter was just what we all needed before i get back to the other stuff :)

Tommy stared at the ceiling. He hadn't moved in hours, and his muscles were starting to ache. His mind had drifted to what Techno had said earlier, about last night. Did it really happen? What he said did add up to why the cloak was in his bed, plus he wouldn't gain anything from lying about this. Tommy decided to trust him on this one, and accepted that he had done that. But how often had that happened? Was this exclusive to last night or had this happened before? How long had this been happening? He could just ask Techno, yeah, but he didn't really want to. He swung his legs over so he was sitting up. He had to do _something_ productive today, he'd ask Techno if he had anything that needed to be done. 

***

"Technoblade?" He called out to the house. He searched the whole house and the only person he could find was Edward, who he couldn't talk to. Maybe he'd ask Ranboo to teach him the Standard Galactic Alphabet. It is the language endermen use, plus he's already taught some to Techno, so Tommy knows that he knows it. It's also the language that enchantment tables used, which could end up being somewhat useful to learn. As Techno was obviously not around, he decided that talking to Ranboo was the best option. He took his communicator out of his pocket and messaged him.

_You whispered to Ranboo: oi bitch_

_You whispered to Ranboo: do you know where Techno's house is_

_Ranboo whispered to you: uh_

_Ranboo whispered to you: yeah I think so_

_Ranboo whispered to you: why_

_You whispered to Ranboo: I'm there right now_

_You whispered to Ranboo: do you want to come over_

_You whispered to Ranboo: I want to learn how to speak enderman_

_Ranboo whispered to you: Oh ok sure_

_Ranboo whispered to you: I think I'll be there in like an hour or so_

_You whispered to Ranboo: ok see you_

_You whispered to Ranboo: dickhead_

He closed the communicator and wandered to outside. He had an hour of time to waste, but he didn't know what to do. He looked up to his tower, the one he tried to build before but ended up just leaving it as the singular stack of cobblestone. Maybe he could try and build it up a bit more. He placed a bucket of water down at the base of the tower, and started going through all the cobblestone in his inventory, going single-block-tower after single-block-tower. he got around three-quarters of the way done before his communicator buzzed.

_Ranboo whispered to you: Tommy_

_Ranboo whispered to you: Tommy there is a pool of water near the house_

_Ranboo whispered to you: Tommy I am literally half enderman is this actually just you trying to kill me D:_

_You whispered to Ranboo: i would never_

_You whispered to Ranboo: unless I would_

_You whispered to Ranboo: anyway I'll be there in a second_

He put the communicator away and jumped down off of the tower, landing perfectly in the water. He walked away from the water and looked around, then realised that he couldn't actually see Ranboo, so he went to open the communicator, then jumped out of his skin as he heard a teleport noise from behind him. He pulled out his axe and swung around as he screamed, then his axe just made direct contact with a netherite chestplate.

"Ah! Tommy! It's just me, it's just me..." Ranboo trailed off into laughter, his stomach hurting from laughing so hard. His hands moved from in front of his face to around his stomach. All during this, Tommy was just giving him an unimpressed stare, waiting for the tall man to form a coherent sentence. He sighed, then stood back up to his full height.

"You finished?" Tommy quirked an eyebrow at him, hating the fact that he had to look up to this giant bitch. 

"Y-yeah, let's go inside!" The enderman hybrid had a huge smile on his face, still thinking about Tommy's scream when he scared him. Tommy walked to the stairs, with Ranboo following him close behind. The doors were opened, and Ranboo started a conversation with Edward almost immediately. They talked for about five minutes before they got interrupted by the child.

"Ranboooooooooo!! You said you would teach me enderman, not just talk to Edward!" He whined, crossing his arms for exaggerated effect.

"Oh yeah! Sorry about that, so where would you like to begin?"

***

It had been a couple of hours, and so far, Tommy had actually been a good student. He paid attention to what Ranboo was saying, and had learnt some of the basics already, but he was starting to get bored.

"Ranboo, can we do something else now? I already know the basics, and you can always come around another time!" 

"Sure, why not. What do you want to do?" He replied as he closed his book, titled " _Enderspeech Vol 1: The Basics._ " 

"Uh..." he thought about what they could do. "I think Technoblade has the recipe for cake downstairs. Let me go check, stay here and talk to Edward or something." Tommy climbed down the ladder and rummaged through chests, until he made a cheer of victory. "I got it! Ranboo, get downstairs right now!" The lanky figure basically fell through the floor instead of climbing down like a normal person, ending up in a pile at the bottom of the ladder. He groaned as Tommy stood there laughing at him, before helping him up. "You're supposed to actually use the ladder, big man!"

"Yeah... yeah. Got it." He expressed, sending a joking glare down to him below. "Anyway, you said you found it, right? What do we need?" 

"I haven't even read it yet! Hold on!" He skimmed the page. "Ok, we need... three buckets of milk... three wheat... an egg... and... sugar! How much of that do we have right now?"

"I have sugar cane on me," he pulled a bit out of the bag on his back to show, "and I know Techno has buckets around here somewhere. We got the sugar, and I have seeds and bone meal, so there's the wheat... should we go to the nearest field and find a chicken and some cows?"

"Sounds good to me, big man!"

"Race you." With that, Ranboo dashed through the door, Tommy chasing him close behind, both of them yelling and laughing. If only for a short while, they could both act like the kids they were.

***

"RANBOOOOOOOO!!! I GOT A COW!!!" Tommy yelled across the field, knowing Ranboo was somewhat close by. He heard the sound of something teleporting near him, and spun around to see him. "Look!! You got the buckets, right?"

"Yeah, I do. I actually already have two buckets of milk, so now all we need to do is grow the wheat and get an egg. You go find a chicken, I'll stay over here, by the lake, and grow the seeds."

"You can't tell me what to do, bitch!" 

"...but I'll go find the egg, yeah." He sprinted off towards an oak forest. He came back around ten minutes later, an egg in hand. "Let's go and bake this bitch!!"

***

They had already put the cake in the oven now, and were now just waiting for it to finish baking, so they could wait for it to cool then put the icing on top. Tommy had sent Ranboo on a mission to go to a nearby spruce forest and grab some sweet berries to top the cake with, so he was sat alone in front of the furnace, watching the cake.

"Ok, I'm back now, I got almost a stack of berries! Will that be enough?" Tommy leaped up and ran over to Ranboo, who had his hands full of berries.

"That will be more than enough!! Go put them in this bowl, we can snack on them for now!! We only need around ten for the cake, and it's almost done!!" He rushed back to the furnace, and tried to take the cake out with his bare hands, before realising that his hands would burn, then grabbed the oven gloves and took the cake out that way. He placed it on top of the counter by the window, and since they lived in a snow biome, the cake would cool quicker. He started prepping the icing, while Ranboo talked to him about a fox he saw in the forest.

"-and it tried to eat the berries!! Right out of my hand!!" 

"That must've been fun."

"It was!! Oh, the cake looks so good! Can we both have a slice now?" The cake had a thick layer of icing on it now, with ten sweet berries dotted around over the icing. 

"Fuck it, why not? Go grab the plates, they're in there." Ranboo grabbed two plates, and Tommy cut them both a slice. They sat upstairs, talking to Edward and eating their cake, when the door opened.

"We're back!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> still can't believe that c!ranboo is 8'5  
> I'M BACK!! expect regular updates for now :)


	8. Minecraft Man

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At the time of writing this ive just started watching this new anime called "Wonder Egg Priority" and holy shit it's good but at the same time what the fuck

"We're back!" Techno called out, before stopping and realising that Ranboo was in his house too. "Oh, Ranboo, I wasn't expecting to see you here. What are you doing with Tommy?"

"Oh, Technoblade! Tommy invited me over, I taught him some Enderspeech, and then we made a cake!"

"Yeah we did! Do you want to- wait, who's that?" Tommy noticed a figure in the doorway, but they were mostly hidden behind the second door, so he couldn't actually see them properly. 

"Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you I was inviting someone over." He turned around to the figure. "Come inside!" 

Phil stepped inside, his wings pressed against his back as to fit through the door.

"...Phil?" Tommy stared at the man who had entered the room. "Phil!! It's been so long man, how are you?"

"Tommy, mate! I'm good, you?" He didn't get a reply, but instead got a hug. He hugged him back, unfolding his wings to wrap Tommy in. They pulled apart after a while, and Phil held Tommy's shoulders and looked him in the eye, a warm smile on his face. "I'm so glad to see you alive and well." He pulled him into another quick hug, then Tommy went back to sitting next to Ranboo. Another figure came in as well, and smiled when he saw everyone in the room.

"Hi everyone! Oh, Ranboo!! It's nice to see you, friend! Do you want some blue?"

"Ghostbur! Good to see you again. I don't need blue right now, but thanks for offering." Everyone sat around and ate the cake that had been baked earlier that day, until Ranboo had to leave.

"Thanks for letting me stay over for a while. It was... nice." Ranboo stood at the door, in his full netherite and looking at the weather. It was dark, but it was a clear night.

"Stay safe Ranboo! You're always welcome to come over, isn't that right Techno?" Phil glanced at the piglin-hybrid standing next to him.

"Yeah, what he said."

"I better be going now. Have fun, you guys!" He smiled at them, then teleported away. Phil then shut the door and turned around to Tommy.

"Now, Tommy. Look at the time. It's pitch black outside!"

"Phil, I'm not a fucking child!! I'll go to bed whenever, old man!" He cursed at him, sticking his tongue out.

"Tommy..." His voice went scarily low, reminding him of another familiar person. His eyes widened a little, then he tried to maintain composure.

"Ok, ok, ok! I'll go now! See you tomorrow maybe?" He speed-walked to the stairs and went down the ladder as quickly as possible, trying to stop the tears forming in his eyes. He had been fine all day, why was this happening now??

"Well done Toms, and yeah I'll still be here in the morning." Tommy went all the way down to Dnret, and curled up under the white sheets on his bed. He'll just sleep off this feeling, he'll be fine in the morning.

* * *

Tommy woke up in Dnret. 

"Did I sleep all the way through the night?" He thought, looking around. It looked like it. It had been a while since he had done that. He stood up and went over to his ender chest, and pulled out a disc at random. He put it on, and just sat opposite the jukebox, listening to it. He stayed there for a while. 

"Tommy..." He sat up and froze. How did he find him. He turned off the jukebox and hid under his bed, and curled in on himself. "Tommy, I know you're here." Why hadn't Technoblade and Phil woken up yet? He couldn't even go to them without running into him. All he could do is just hide under the bed and wait for him to leave. He heard the wooden floor creak, and he tensed up further. The ladder creaked too, then he heard footsteps against the cold floor, then he saw Dream's shoes. Dark grey, with black laces. They contrasted perfectly with the yellow concrete surrounding him. The shoes paced around for a bit, before stopping right in front of the bed. They stood there for what seemed like forever, then they stepped back. Tommy almost let out a breath, but then he dropped to his knees and peered under the bed. The blank :) mask looked left, then right, then locked eyes with him. Then an arm reached out for him, and he screamed while being dragged out from under the bed and being dragged up.

"Let me go! Let me go now, you fucking-" Dream's fist connected with his stomach, cutting him off. He pulled Tommy up by the hair, swung him around, then pushed him towards the ladder.

"We're leaving, Tommy. Either you leave peacefully, or I make you leave by force." He pushed him further towards the ladder, which he hesitantly started climbing. Dream climbed up after him, then they climbed up the other ladder, and they both left through the door he entered in. Tommy opened his mouth to say something, but instead he just closed it again. They walked together in silence, all the way back to Logstedshire, still in it's blown up state. Dream lay out a thin sleeping bag on the floor, and pointed at it.

"This is where you'll sleep now." He also pulled out a shovel, and dug a small hole. "You know the drill, Tommy." He emptied his pockets and his bag into the pit, and then pulled off his armour and threw it in too. His pictures stayed in his pocket, seemingly unseen. Until they weren't.

"And the pictures, Tommy. Everything needs to go in the hole. I thought you knew this by now?"

"Wh- What pictures? I don't know what you're on about, Dream!" Dream let out a low laugh.

"You've never been a good liar. You have one more chance to drop them in yourself."

"But-"

" _Now,_ Tommy." He sighed, then dug the pictures out of his pocket and threw them in the pit. Dream placed the TNT above, and tossed the flint and steel over to him. "I'll let you do the job for me." He lit the TNT while Dream left through the newly lit portal. He dropped to the floor and curled in on himself. He'd survived exile ~~_barely-_~~ before, he could do it again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is more a note for myself than anyone else-  
> Phil has no biological children in this fic  
> He adopted Wilbur officially  
> tommy and Ranboo unofficially  
> him and techno are just v good friends  
> Wilbur, techno and tommy think of each other as brothers, but none are biologically related


	9. Calming Down

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> still debating giving this a good ending or a bad ending

* * *

Phil woke up to the sound of a scream at the wonderful time of 6am. He sat up and looked around, seeing it wasn't Techno, then realised that it must be Tommy. He went down the ladders as fast as he could, silently wondering how the _fuck_ Techno hadn't woken up at that, as screams weren't exactly the quietest thing. He ran into Tommy's room, and was met with the sight of Tommy, sat with his back against the wall, breathing heavily and looking around. He made eye contact with Phil, and moved further away from him, backing himself into the nearest corner. Phil backed off immediately, and stood in the small hall between the ladder and the room. He pressed his wings to his back, mainly to help him appear less threatening, and sat down. Tommy saw him doing this and relaxed a tiny bit, before he remembered Dream can shapeshift, and freaked out even further. Phil noticed and moved a little bit closer to him, but not too close.

"Toms! It's ok, it's just me! What happened?"

"I- You- He's- He's _here-_ " He struggled to voice his panic. He calmed a bit at the nickname though. Dream never called him that. 

"It's fine. Everything's fine. You're safe here. You're safe with me and Techno, I promise." Tommy was still freaking out, but less so, and nodded in response to Phil. "Can I come closer to you?" He nodded again. Phil stood up and slowly walked over to the boy, keeping his wings pinned to his back, trying his hardest not to scare the boy. He reached his arms out, and Tommy basically jumped into his arms, hugging him so tightly that if he were any stronger he'd surely break multiple bones in his body. Neither of them said anything as they stood there, as time seemed to slow around them. They broke apart at last, Tommy's tear-stained face avoiding eye contact with him.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Tommy considered it for a moment. He wanted to trust him. He really did, but...

* * *

"Hey Tommy!" Tommy's head shot up so fast he hit the top of his tent. That didn't sound like Dream. 

"Who is it?" 

"It's me! Come outside!"

"Give me a minute, I'll be out there soon!" He threw on a hoodie he had kept in his chest, and walked outside. He was outside for a total of around three seconds before he was attacked with a hug.

"It's been too long, mate! How are you?" Tommy teared up.

"Phil? Is that really you?" His voice cracked. He didn't get a verbal response, but instead he was just hugged tighter. It was a little too tight. He tried to pull away from the hug, but instead he got hugged tighter. "Phil?" The boy couldn't see the grin spreading across Phil's face. "Phil, y-you can let go now." He tightened his grip again, making him yelp in response. "Phil! Let go! Please!" He listened this time, dropping him to the floor. He laughed at him, and Dream morphed back into his normal form. 

This was only the first time out of many that Dream shifted into his friends and hurt him. As if just doing it normally wasn't bad enough.

* * *

"-my? Tommy, should I go get Techno?" 

"No, no, no, you can't go get Techno, just be yourself, just be yourself Dream, please be-"

"Wait, Dream?" Tommy snapped out of his rambling to listen to the pure confusion in Phil's (?) voice. "Dream's not here. You ok?" 

"..." he opened his mouth to say something, but no words came out. Should he tell him? What if he wasn't actually Phil? He stared at him, looking for any slight imperfections that would give the game away. Dream always forgot his emerald earring, and the scar from a baby zombie bite on his left wrist, and the slightly paler streak in his hair on the right side of his face. They were small things, but he had to learn to notice them to make sure he would survive exile. 

"Toms? You don't have to tell me about it, but know that you can trust me, ok?"

"Yeah... yeah. Thanks, Phil."

"No worries, mate. Are you gonna get up, or go back to sleep?"

"I'm probably gonna just get up now. Probably wouldn't sleep again after that."

"Yeah, good plan. You wanna go exploring later with me and Tech?"

"Maybe, I'll see how I am." With that, Phil left to go back upstairs, to Technoblade.

***

"Techno?"

"Yeah Phil?" 

"Is Tommy... ok?"

"Why don't you ask him? He'll know better than me."

"I could ask him, but I don't think he's interested in telling me."

"Give the kid time, Phil. He's obviously not ok, but we need him to tell us on his own accord, not us forcing him to tell us and making him trust us even less. I know you're worried, but you just need to let him do it himself."

"I know, but..." he trailed off, trusting Technoblade to understand what he means. 

"Phil. Look at me." He grabbed the shorter man by the shoulders. "You gotta trust him. He knows when he's ready to say. We're both worried, but he will tell us when he is ready."

"...You're right. Yeah, you're right. Thanks Tech."

"No problem. Now, let's start getting things for later, yeah?"

"Sounds good!"

***

Little known to the two above him, but Tommy had heard almost all the conversation. Was he going to tell them? He wanted to. Did he? It's confusing. Did he trust them? He only trusted Dream. Could he trust them? Could he trust Dream? …Could he trust anyone? No, he could trust Techno and Phil. Wilbur had trusted them both, so that means they were safe, right? He wanted to tell them. Yeah. He wanted to tell both Phil and Techno about... everything. Exile. Dream. The ever-going-down spiral that was his thoughts. He wanted to tell them everything. And he would! But not now. Maybe not for a while. But he would tell them eventually.

He would tell them eventually.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> next chapter is fucking poggers yall ain't ready for this


	10. Tell Them?

"You both ready to go now?" Phil got a nod from two of them. He was leading them today, Techno, Tommy, and Ghostbur, and he had a mild plan of where he's going, but he hadn't really explored the direction he was planning to go, so it was a _mild_ mild plan. He got all three out of the door, and they started walking. Tommy looked a little nervous, but he brushed it off as the aftermath of whatever the fuck happened earlier. He wanted to ask about it, but he knew that Techno was right, he shouldn't push it. He was happy that Tommy had decided to come with them. It was a good start. He wanted him to trust him, and if this is what it took, then so be it. He would tell them all what happened in their own time, like Techno said. He just wished that time would come sooner rather than later. He wanted to help him, he wanted to help so badly, but he couldn't do that until he told them what happened. Phil was snapped out of his thoughts by Ghostbur.

"-recognise where we're going! I got lost in this forest, did you know that Phil? I was lost here for what felt like ages!!"

"That's great, Ghostbur. What did you do while you were out here on your own?"

"I spent a lot of time just trying to find a way out, actually. I kept getting more and more lost though, but then those two found me!!" He pointed over at Techno and Tommy, who were arguing about what the best tree was. He was glad to see Tommy looking less nervous, even if the replacement to that was pure rage.

"Oak is the best tree, you bastard!"

"It's clearly birch, you're just too much of a child to see that."

"I'm not a fucking child! How many times do I have to tell you that, jesus man!!"

"You are most definitely a child. In fact, I think you are the biggest child I have ever met."

"WHAT THE FUCK DOES THAT EVEN MEAN BITCH?!" Tommy started chasing the older man, both of them running off and yelling about different kinds of trees. Secretly, Phil disagreed with both of them, and he preferred dark oak himself. But he wasn't going to tell either of them that, and instead just observed from the side lines. Or he would've done that if Tommy hadn't come running up to him and started asking him a bunch of questions about trees.

"Phil, Techno keeps saying that birch is the best tree!! Can you tell him that he's wrong for me? Please?"

"Tommy's the wrong one here, he thinks that oak is the best tree! _Oak!!_ He's the wrong one here! Tell him, Phil!"

"You're both wrong, dark oak is clearly the best." He smiled as the two started arguing more. It was nice to see everyone getting along and acting like a normal group of friends. Speaking of friends.

"Phil! Look! This is friend!" Ghostbur pointed at a blue sheep.

"Their name is friend?"

"Yeah, his name is friend! Isn't that cool?"

"Yes, that's cool, Ghostbur. Now, let's try and catch up with the others." They half walked, half ran to catch up to the two, that had somehow gotten very far ahead in the short space of time between now and their last encounter. 

"And- oh, you two finally caught up. I can't blame Phil, because he is an incredibly old man, but Ghostbur, you're a ghost! What took you so long?"

"I'm not that old you gremlin child!" The group dissolved into arguing once more, yells and laughter coming from them.

***

They made it through the forest and found a village. The arguing had died down, and Tommy looked even worse than before. He was picking at his skin, making his arms tinted slightly red. Phil noticed, and tried to talk to him.

"Hey mate, what's wrong?" Tommy flinched at his voice. 

"Huh? What do you mean, I'm fine!"

"Toms, you're picking at your skin. We can go back if you want to, that's fine."

"It's fine, really, I promise."

"If you say so. Say if you change your mind, though, that would be fine with everyone." The group fell into a comfortable silence, Tommy still picking at his skin but stopping whenever he noticed, only to start doing it again a few minutes later. They looked around the village, finding that all the chests were empty, and although they didn't notice at first, they found it weird that there were no villagers living there. They only noticed the strangeness of it when they saw blood on the stairs up to one of the houses. There was a discarded diamond axe that was close to breaking to the side of the house. It didn't take long to piece two and two together. 

"Jesus Christ." Techno muttered. He thought he was bad, but whoever did this was just wrong. Villagers don't hurt people, all they do is just trade and talk with you sometimes. Nothing about them was worthy of getting one killed, let alone a whole village of them. Techno was slightly freaked out by this, but the others looked even worse than he did. Phil was looking around nervously, his hand glued to the hilt of his sword. Ghostbur had gone ahead, and was sat facing away from the village, talking to a group of sheep he found. Then Tommy was just sat by the diamond axe, crouching over it, not saying anything. His eyes were fixed on the blade, covered in the dried blood of the villagers that lived where they were previously. He grabbed the axe, despite the fact that it was probably going to break within ten hits, and held it by his side. He walked back over to Techno.

"Let's carry on going. Do you have a cloth?"

"Uh, yeah, I do. Here." He handed over the black cloth he kept on him, and Tommy wiped down the blade, revealing how chipped the axe was underneath. Definitely going to break soon. He didn't know why Tommy picked up the axe, but he seemed happier with it, so he didn't say anything. "Let's go gather up the other two then get out of here, this place is weird."

"I'm with you, big man!"

***

Techno had realised which direction Phil was leading them, but Phil didn't know, Ghostbur probably forgot where they were, and Tommy was too nervous to bring it up. So they kept going. It wasn't long before they reached Logstedshire, and they all stared at the mess of a campsite. Tommy had disappeared at some point in the last ten minutes, leaving his friends to see the place for themselves. Logsted had been left blown up, with scattered pieces of the tent around where the tent once stood, and the main area being reduced to scraps and a tall tower. Phil spun around to go and talk to Tommy, but Tommy was gone.

"Where's Tommy? Ghostbur, you go that way," he pointed at a small patch of trees, "Techno, go there," he pointed the way they came, "and I'll go this way." They split off into their different directions.

***

"Tommy? Tommy?" Techno called out, getting an odd sense of deja vu. Looking for Tommy, near where he was exiled. Huh. He carried on calling out for him, yelling his name around the village.

***

"Tommy, come on out! I can give you some blue!" Ghostbur went between the trees, weaving in and out. He was mildly lost, but he knew that the others would come and get him if he didn't return by the end of the day.

***

"Toms! Come here!" Philza wondered around the plains biome, looking in each and every hole in the ground he found. He could still faintly hear Techno calling out. They would find him eventually.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :)


	11. Masked Smiles

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> early chapter pog? 
> 
> also warning bc dream becomes an even bigger bitch in this chapter, new tags will be added before the chapter goes out

Tommy wasn't actually anywhere near where the group was checking. He was in the nether, being taken to who knows where, slung over someone's shoulder. His captor had bound his hands and feet, making it impossible for him to escape. Even if he weren't tied up, it would be hard to run away, as he had been hit by splash potions of slowness, weakness, and poison. He had fallen unconscious at some point before he had been taken to the nether, so transporting him was fairly easy. He'd be told what was going on once he woke up where the person wanted him to be.

***

The trio had searched everywhere, yet hadn't found him. They'd each messaged him a few times, and nothing had come of it. They all met up again, to decide what to do next.

"I searched the whole way back to where we came from, and then some. I assume both of you searched the whole area around where you went, so now what?"

"I guess we could ask around the main server? He's clearly not here anymore." Phil answered him.

"Let's go visit L'Manberg!!" So off they went, not noticing the nearby nether portal.

***

Tommy woke up, trapped in a big blackstone box, the only thing lighting up the room being a torch on the wall furthest from him. He stood up to go and sit nearer the light, but he fell over almost instantly, the nausea and weakness hitting him all at once. He fell backwards, and noticed his hands were tied when he went to go and catch himself, and instead just fell. He sat up against the wall nearest to him, and started shuffling over to the light instead. He made it over, and tried to reach up to burn the rope off, but he couldn't get his arms around his head, and even then the torch was far too high for him to reach anyway. He settled for sitting by the torch, mildly comforted by the warmth, and waited for something to happen. He almost fell asleep, but just before he went he was awoken by the sound of a pickaxe hitting the blackstone. Someone fell through the roof and landed in the middle of the room, facing away from him. They turned around and Tommy recognised them instantly.

"Dream," he said, trying to hide the nervousness in his voice, and failing.

"Tommy! Where did you go? I spent so long looking for you, I missed you!"

"Did- Did you really? Wait- no you didn't, Dream... you didn't miss me, you- you missed fucking with me!"

"Eh, what's the difference in the end? It's still you, at the end of the day. But, I missed _you._ I promise."

"If... if you really missed me that much, then why am I over here? I'm t-tied up and I wouldn't be surprised if you drugged me or some shit! I tried to stand up and- and fell over almost immediately, dickhead!"

"I had to! I knew you wouldn't come willingly, the people you were with had brainwashed you into thinking I didn't like you! I needed to get you away from them, don't you understand? I saved you, Tommy!" Tommy faltered. Had he really been saved by Dream?

"But-"

"No buts, I saved you from them, trust me!"

"...I'll trust you once you untie me and let me drink some milk."

"Turn around, I'll get you out right now if you want." Tommy turned around, now sitting with his face inches from the wall. He felt a cold hand grab his wrist, then heard a knife slice through the rope, then winced.

"Oh, I caught your hand there with the knife. I'll get you something for that later. Also, here." He threw a bottle of milk at him, which he drank, but not without staring him up and down cautiously for a minute. He threw the bottle back at Dream, who caught it in his hand. Tommy wiped the blood off his hand and onto his shirt, then started walking over to Dream. He had helped him, so... he was trustworthy, right?

***

Phil stormed into Ranboo's house, Techno and Ghostbur close behind.

"Ranboo! Do you know where Tommy is?"

"I thought he was with you! Wait, what's happening Phil? Is he hurt?"

"He's missing. We checked all around where we were, and he's just gone. We thought we'd check L'Manberg, but he isn't here either. Do you-"

"Is that a cat?!" Ghostbur interrupted the conversation, distracted by all of Ranboo's pets. He pointed at a Siamese cat. "What's this one's name?"

"That's Jjjjjjjjeffery. Spelt with eight J's. The two black ones are called Enderpearl and Enderchest." Ghostbur started fussing over the cats. "Anyway, Tommy's missing? Do you have any clue where he is, or are you just guessing?"

"Just guessing. We stopped by to see if you knew where he went, but it appears not. We'll be leaving now, message us if you see anything-"

"Wait!" Ranboo interrupted Phil. "Um- Can I come with you? I know we aren't that close, but me and Tommy-"

"Yes, you can come with us. One wrong move though, and we'll kill you until you no longer respawn. Got it?"

"...yep..." Ranboo nodded, and the group left L'Manberg, the leader switching every now and then.

***

Tommy sat alone in the box. Dream had to go, and left him here alone. There was no way to get out, as there were multiple layers of stone and Dream had taken all of his items. The room was empty, except a bed and the torch mentioned earlier. Things were bad. Even in exile he felt freer than this. He didn't mind, though. Dream was around more often. He only hit him sometimes. Sometimes Dream hit him while looking like Phil, Techno, and Ranboo. Sometimes even Tubbo and Wilbur. He didn't have anywhere to blow up his items, even if he didn't have any items to begin with. Dream sometimes splashed him with potions, some good and some bad. The good ones easily made up for the bad ones, though. Things were going to be fine, as long as his best friend came every day. He wouldn't know if he came every day, anyway, there was no way to tell what time it was inside the box. He was going to be ok with his best friend Dream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is sponsored by sleep deprivation and spite, and Tommyinnit's funniest Minecraft mod
> 
> ngl this chapter is early bc i forgot there's no 29th of February


	12. He's Here

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i watched Karl's karaoke vod while writing some of this and RANBOO POPPED OFF
> 
> also watched Ranboo's vod (28/2/21) and is chat (& tubbo) ok?????

The four of them walked along, looking everywhere where he might be. They didn't find anything to lead them closer to him, but they did gather some food to last the journey. Hopefully it wouldn't last longer than three weeks. They walked at day, then set up their tents at night. Ghostbur didn't need sleep, so during the night he would search the area and talk to them in the morning if he had seen anything. After a week of this and finding nothing, they were all starting to feel a bit helpless. They had sent Ghostbur to go back and protect the house, giving him a clear map so that he wouldn't get lost. Tommy was gone, nobody had any clues, and he hadn't messaged any of them. It had been about two weeks when Ranboo started acting... weird. He complained of headaches, and slept in way later than he had been. Phil thought he might be ill, but he didn't have any other symptoms. It was two and a half weeks when it happened.

***

"Ranboo? Are you ok? It's 1pm, you're still not out of bed." Phil opened up Ranboo's tent and sat down on the floor inside. He didn't respond, so he nudged him. Ranboo sat up immediately, and something seemed wrong. Phil glanced up, and knew immediately what was wrong. He had talked about this... "enderwalk" state before, but he had never seen it himself. He looked almost the exact same, except his eyes were now ender pearl colour, with no pupils or iris. There were small purple specks surrounding him, presumably ender particles. 

"Techno? The kid's doing his enderwalk shit, what do we-" He was interrupted by Ranboo walking into him, then moving around and carrying on walking. 

"Where's he going? You pack up his tent, I'll hold him, then once you're done we'll just follow him around until he snaps out of it." Phil nodded, and quickly collapsed the tent while Techno went chasing after Ranboo. It didn't take him long to catch up, as he didn't walk particularly fast in this state. He just kind of stumbled along. Phil caught up, and they just followed along silently, watching his every move. They both had their hands on their weapons for if anything went wrong, but they could easily knock him out if they needed to, they'd be fine.

***

"Where the fuck are we?" Phil said as he actually took notice of their surroundings for the first time in a while. They were at least a thousand blocks away from where they had been before Ranboo entered this state, and the area looked unfamiliar. It was a desert biome, but the land was unusually flat, except for a ruined nether portal that had already been looted. It was weird for one to be looted this far out, but they both just put it up to someone coming out to explore.

"I dunno. A desert, I guess. Do you think he'll stop soon? We've been walking for a while with no breaks."

"Well, once he snaps out of it the first thing we'll do is have a break."

"Good plan." They fell back into silence for a while, until a... thing came into their view.

"Phil? What is that?"

"I can't tell. If he stops soon we'll take a break near it, though." They walked closer to the thing, then Ranboo, who had been walking ahead of them, fell forwards, smacking his head on the box in the process. Phil ran to him, Techno close behind, and checked to see if he had hurt himself. There was a small amount of blood (blood? It was purple...) on his temple, but it wasn't an injury that was going to kill him. He squinted as he opened his eyes, as he was looking directly at the sun.

"Where... where am I? Phil? Techno?"

"We're right here, don't worry mate. You were in your enderwalk state and ended up here."

"Wait, really? Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"

"You've been acting strange all week, it's not too surprising. Techno's going to crack open this blackstone box so we can go and stay in here for the night. Sound good?"

"Yeah, sure." He reached up to feel his head. "My head hurts. Did I hit my head?"

"You did. I think you're bleeding, so I'm going to patch that up, ok?"

"What do you mean by 'I think'- you know what, it's fine. Go ahead." Techno started digging at the blackstone on one side, while Phil and Ranboo sat against another, wrapping his head in bandages. They were almost done, when Techno came sprinting around to them.

"Phil- Phil, you gotta come look at this. There's someone in here. It's too dark to tell who, I accidentally put out the torch when I mined through."

"What? Ranboo, can you finish bandaging yourself? I'll be right back."

"Hey, I'm coming too. Just give me a second-" He tucked the end of the bandage into itself. "Let's go."

"Alright. Keep your hand on your sword, but don't draw it unless you have to." Techno's serious voice was scary.

***

"Hello?" They all stepped into the box, Phil waving a torch into the room. The room was still dim with the addition of the torch, but at least they could see a bit. He hung the torch on the wall closest to him, and walked further in. The person who was in there was lying on the ground up against a corner, facing the walls.

"Wait, that's-"

"Tommy?" Ranboo was the one to run forwards, kneeling down next to him and putting his hand on his forehead. "Phil, he feels really warm, I don't think it's normal."

"Wait, let me see." He ran to him and rested a hand against his forehead. "Definitely not good, that's for sure. Do we have any way to get back home quickly?"

"Not really. We'll just have to go as fast as we can."

"Let's go, then."

***

They arrived back home in just under two days. Tommy hadn't woken up at all, making Phil more and more worried. As soon as they got back, he set everyone to do various tasks.

"Techno, you go to the kitchen and make soup or something. Ranboo, could you go and get some blankets? They should be downstairs somewhere. I'll focus on getting healing potions. Techno, do you know if we have any milk?"

"No, we don't. And all the cows are far away."

"Oh, me and Tommy went to find cows when we made the cake, I could-"

"We'll do that tomorrow. For now we just need to get him to wake up."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> endermen have purple blood, have a good day


	13. Healing Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I DOWNLOADED SHIMEJIS OMG I LOVE THEM <333  
> (from @/taro_tayo and @/honeybunmirren on twitter :] )

Ranboo had found the blankets, and sat with Tommy. There were two blankets on top of Tommy, and Ranboo was curled under one himself. They were sat on two separate couches, as they couldn't both fit on one. Ranboo was playing a game on his communicator, but every few minutes he would look up at Tommy with a worried look on his face. He had been the one to change his shirt when they got back into a cleaner one, and his entire body had been covered in cuts and bruises, some bigger than others. Some were old, but the ones were mostly just covered with new ones on top. The injuries on the outside were severe, but they weren't enough for someone to stay asleep for over two days. There were also some potion burn marks from potions of harming on him. Ranboo had come to the conclusion that Dream definitely had something to do with this, as why else would he walk there in his enderwalk state? 

"Hey mate, are you ok?" He was snapped out of his thoughts by Phil. "You've been staring at him for almost ten minutes now. What's bothering you?"

"Well... so you know how I was the one who changed his shirt?"

"Yes?"

"He's covered in... a lot of injuries. Mainly cuts, bruises, and potion burns. I think some of the cuts are from shattered glass bottles."

"He's covered in injuries? Take him out from under the blankets, I'll go and get some things. I don't think just healing potions can fix this if it's as bad as you say." Phil rushed out of the room as quickly as he arrived, leaving Ranboo to remove the blankets. He threw the one on top of him to the floor, Then did the same with the ones on Tommy. He took off his shirt, exposing the myriad of wounds. Now that he looked closer, a lot of the cuts were quite deep - some were definitely from glass. Some looked like they were from other things, like a sword. The bruises were all kinds of shapes, but a lot of them looked like they were from another person, like punches or kicks. The potion burns were bad, layered on top of each other over and over again. They weren't just from potions of harming, there were different kinds of burns. The more he looked, the more he wanted to look away. Phil came back, and he almost dropped everything he was holding when he saw Tommy.

"Jesus Christ! I didn't realise it was this bad, fuck. Ranboo, could you take a couple of the things from me? I'm having a hard time holding everything."

"Got it." He took a few things from the top of the pile he was carrying, and placed them on the floor next to him.

"If you could go and help Techno in the kitchen, that'd be great. I'm going to be in here for a while, he's in a worse condition than I thought he'd be."

"Yep. Message me if you need anything!" He walked out of the room and went straight to Techno.

* * *

Tommy woke up in the blackstone box. Dream was sitting opposite him, watching him sleep.

"Hey, what the-" He caught his tongue. Swearing at Dream was a bad idea. "Why were you watching me?"

"I was waiting for you to wake up. I have a gift."

"Is it like all the other 'gifts,' or is it something g- new?" He didn't want to come off as unappreciative about the previous gifts, so he stopped himself from saying good.

"Something new! I thought you'd like this, so I got you..." He pulled something out from behind him. "A mask! It looks just like mine! You like the gift, right?" He handed it to him.

"Y-Yeah, it looks great." He put it on. "Huh." He was surprised to find out that he could see through it perfectly well.

"What, did you think that I couldn't see? I can see perfectly well, it just stops others from looking in."

"Yeah." They fell into silence, with Tommy looking around the dimly lit room and noticing everything that he could still surprisingly see.

***

When Tommy broke the mask, Dream hadn't been happy. It wasn't his fault. He had been pacing around, and tripped on a piece of blackstone sticking out of the floor. He smashed his face into the ground, breaking his nose. Dream hadn't really cared about his nose, instead yelling at him about breaking the mask.

"I spent ages getting that for you! You're so ungrateful, why did you have to just go and break it like you break everything?!" Tommy had tuned him out after a while, only coming back when he was hit across the face. He only hit him once that day, saying that the broken nose was enough of a punishment. He hadn't given him any potions for it, either.

* * *

"Aaaaaaand done!" Phil said to the empty room. He had finally finished healing and bandaging all of Tommy's injuries, using almost six healing potions in the process. He had drank the last bit of the sixth one himself, the exhaustion of the day vanishing instantly. He messaged Techno and Ranboo on his communicator saying that he was done, then sat down on a stool. He wanted to sit down on the couch, but it squished his wings, and it took too long to sort his wings out, especially since they were already a mess. He sat there for a short amount of time, before Techno came in holding a large pot, with Ranboo close behind him with smaller bowls. 

"Finished. I made potato soup."

"Why am I not surprised? Anyways, put the pot on that table, put the smaller bowls next to it. We'll wake him up if he doesn't wake up in an hour, as he needs to eat and he hasn't in two days, at least." They spent the hour talking and slowly eating the potato soup, then Techno noticed the time.

"Hey, are we waking him up now? It's been around an hour."

"Oh, it has been an hour, hasn't it? I'll do it now, then." He walked over to Tommy, and nudged him. 

"Hey mate, wake up."

"You're being too gentle, Phil. Watch this." Techno walked over and gently pushed Phil to the side, then looked at Tommy. He pushed him hard, and Tommy woke up.

"What... do you want..."

"Wow, no swearing at me? I'm surprised."

"Wait, Technoblade? How did you..." He opened his eyes and looked around the room. "How did I get here? Where's-"

"Dream isn't here, Tommy." Ranboo spoke up. The older two looked at him confused, and were even more confused when Tommy relaxed at hearing that.

"What does Dream have to do with this?"

"He'll say when he's ready, I just guessed it had something to do with Dream." It wasn't a full lie.

"Ok. Anyway, do you want some soup, Toms? It's potato."

"Oh, let me guess who made it. Techno?"

"Who, me? I would never do such a thing, Tommy. Why would I, the great Technoblade, do anything with potatoes?" The group started laughing, but Phil stopped when he noticed something.

"Wait, who's that outside?" The group looked out the window. The figure smiled and waved, and started coming closer, going around the house and walking into the room.

"Ghostbur! I didn't know you were here!"

"Tommy! They found you!" The mood of the room somehow rose even higher. If only for a while, they could all forget about what had happened and could enjoy spending time together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i speedran like all of this in an hour
> 
> edit 10/3/21 i realised i had forgotten to write him into the chapter so thats why the ghostbur bit seems a bit tagged on at the end :)


End file.
